Twins, Luis Ayala Reach Agreement

According to Joe Christensen of the Minneapolis Star-Tribune, the Twins reached an agreement with reliever Luis Ayala today on a one-year, $1.3MM deal. He can earn another $575K in incentives. If met, he’d exceed his ’08 salary of $1.7MM. Ayala was ranked as a Type B free agent after the season, but the Mets did not offer him arbitration.

Ayala, 31, posted a 5.71 ERA in 75.6 innings for the Nationals and Mets last year. He stuck out just 5.95 per nine innings, but showed good control with a 2.85 BB/9. He showed an elevated groundball rate in his short stint with the Mets. FanGraphs valued last year’s performance at $100K.